There’s a new business set to open Thursday on Hillsborough Street, but this one doesn’t sell food, books or print cartridges.

Only seven people work there and looking through the door, pedestrians can see nothing but a dark, carpeted staircase. Customers can spend hundreds of dollars and walk out empty-handed. It will struggle to compete with the Chinese and it strives to obscure its dealings and protect the identity of its clients.

It’s called The Unknown Gamer, and although it was founded in April 2006, it has until now operated only on the Internet.

Its primary wares and services revolve around a video game called World of Warcraft, and customers will be able to buy various in-game assets and services.

WoW is a “massively multiplayer” online game with more than 9 million players worldwide. After paying about $15 per month for the subscription service, players create a character and spend hundreds of hours improving its attributes and questing after coveted items.

A key achievement is reaching level 70, the maximum measure of power and ability.

And that’s where The Unknown Gamer comes in.

According to Chief Executive Officer Cedric Williams, TUG employees take clients’ characters and work them up to level 70 as efficiently as possible for about $250 — a process called “powerleveling.”

“[Powerleveling employees] are not supposed to talk to anybody [in the game] because they’re somebody else,” Williams said.

The company also trades gold, the in-game currency, for real money. The act of paying money for video game assets is referred to as “real money trading.”

“We’re kind of a cheater industry, but I call it an aiding industry,” Williams said.

Williams said powerleveling and RMT are against the WoW terms of use, and can get clients’ accounts banned if they are caught. That’s caused problems for Williams on one of the few occasions where an account has been banned under his care.

“I got a death threat,” Williams said.

Similar Chinese businesses have very competitive prices in the RMT market, but Williams said he is banking on his unique level of accountability. According to his Web site, “if your account is banned while under our care, we will restart the leveling on a new character at no extra charge.”

“We have ethics when it comes to doing this,” Williams said.

He said the company had already performed powerleveling for more than 1,000 accounts when the business operated only online.

Although she doesn’t play WoW , freshman in management JoEllen Billotte said it’s difficult to understand why there’s a market for video game services like these.

“If you’re going to play a game, you should play yourself,” Billotte said.

But Williams said it takes an average of 660 hours of play to reach level 70, and not everybody who enjoys WoW has that much spare time.

Matthew Long, a sophomore in physics and an avid WoW player, said such services only bother him, “When you have to deal with [a powerleveling client] and they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Charles Hughes, a computer engineering sophomore who also plays often, said he would never buy gold or powerleveling services because he said he’s perfectly happy to earn it himself.

“I’ve actually sold gold to people before,” Hughes said.

Williams said he doesn’t expect any hardcore players to take interest in his powerleveling service.

“Clients are working professionals,” he said. “There should be an equal tradeoff [between time and money].”

The Unknown Gamer also sells their own valuable characters. Customers will be able to come in the store and try before they buy on one of the computers.

In addition to RMT transactions, Williams said he hopes to open an on-site gaming center in time for spring semester.

“I may make it free,” he said.

Williams also said he plans to develop several philanthropic Flash games. Examples include a nanobot game where the player fights cancer cells, a game designed to coach welfare recipients to success and an educational game where the player investigates sexual harassment cases.

“My ultimate dream is to design a [mainstream] video game,” Williams said.

He said he hopes his location on Hillsborough will encourage engineering and design students to seek internships.